TitaniumGray5

The indicators work great IMO..yes, they are a little different, but once you read the manual or learn how to use them, they are great. In regards to hand position, if you have your hands where they are supposed to be (3 and 9 O'clock) for proper driving and airbag safety, they will not block the indicators.

CoolTones

Huh? What did the wiper stalk do? I'm not sure I understand what you're saying.

Also, you do get used to the turn signals. For me, it's like everything else in the car (iDrive, SMG, Active Steering, etc.) -- it's different -- if you're resitant to change, then you'll have a hard time with the car. If you accept change and allow yourself to adjust, you'll find that these "new" designs end up being better than the old way of doing things. As far as the wheel blocking the green lights, yeah, they could have been placed better.

I will say that if they'd have made the audible clicking louder or through the speakers, there would be people complaining that it's too loud and they'd be calling that a design flaw...
[/quote]

When the turn indicators are activated, the *green* directional light flashes but you can't see it. Turn the windshield wipers on and you *see* the wipers going back and forth on the windshield -- That's what I meant about *seeing* the wipers...

Making comments about change does not make one *resistant* to change, but merely one who *notices* change I very much like the design changes that BMW has done to the 5-series. The fact that I will now be able to haul 4 golf bags at once is a good change!

As you pointed out, you can't please everyone.

skaffa

Huge tall You are Iceman (255cm). Maybe typo?

Only "problem" is that sometimes I, by mistake, use turnligh lever for cruise and car coming ahead get flashed.

Skaffa

cobradav

Huge tall You are Iceman (255cm). Maybe typo?

Only "problem" is that sometimes I, by mistake, use turnligh lever for cruise and car coming ahead get flashed.

Skaffa
[/quote]
I have done that a couple times as well. My wife?s Audi is the same set up so I was already partly trained but still do the accidental flashing a little more in her car. The 6er set up is an improvement over the Audi, plus the actual CC is better in the BMW. Overall I like the layout, and even though I do not always see and hear the turn signal I sense that it has done what I asked of it either in the lane change or full turn (past detent). I also sense when I hit the detent and did not intend to, so go again in same direction to cancel. Again, after a while it just seems second nature to me. On the other hand, when I get into my archaic US made products (truck and older sedan to cart around dogs) I keep trying to use the change lane feature ? oops don?t have it, and the push/pull CC ? oops don?t have that either. Oh well, some day the rest of the world will catch up.

mflauer

You can turn off the 3 time flash in iDrive so that the indicators work like they do in other cars (I turned this feature off). I don't have any problem either seeing the indicators or hearing them (a synthesized mechanical relay switch is broadcast over the speakers), so they work just fine for me.
[/quote]
You don't have toturn it off. If you hold it down it works like a standard signal.

mflauer

Huge tall You are Iceman (255cm). Maybe typo?

Only "problem" is that sometimes I, by mistake, use turnligh lever for cruise and car coming ahead get flashed.

Skaffa
[/quote]
That's an easy mistake to make especially in the beginning.

skaffa

Not beginner anymore, but maybe slow to learn!

Skaffa

Rudy

Huh? What did the wiper stalk do? I'm not sure I understand what you're saying.

Also, you do get used to the turn signals. For me, it's like everything else in the car (iDrive, SMG, Active Steering, etc.) -- it's different -- if you're resitant to change, then you'll have a hard time with the car. If you accept change and allow yourself to adjust, you'll find that these "new" designs end up being better than the old way of doing things. As far as the wheel blocking the green lights, yeah, they could have been placed better.

I will say that if they'd have made the audible clicking louder or through the speakers, there would be people complaining that it's too loud and they'd be calling that a design flaw...
[/quote]

When the turn indicators are activated, the *green* directional light flashes but you can't see it. Turn the windshield wipers on and you *see* the wipers going back and forth on the windshield -- That's what I meant about *seeing* the wipers...

Making comments about change does not make one *resistant* to change, but merely one who *notices* change I very much like the design changes that BMW has done to the 5-series. The fact that I will now be able to haul 4 golf bags at once is a good change!

As you pointed out, you can't please everyone.
[/quote]
I understand the difference in what you can *see* between the turn signal indicators and the wipers. I don't understand what you mean when you say "the E60 wiper stalk also does the same thing." What does it do that's the same as the turn signal stalk?

Also, I didn't mean to offend you in any way with my comment about people who are resistant to change. It wasn't aimed at you specifically and it wasn't meant to be a negative. I think we all are resistant to change to some degree. The E60 is advanced in many ways -- at the beginning of ownership, things that are different on the car are quite noticeable and evident and often times people complain about them. (I may have misunderstood your comment as being critical.) Next week I'll have had my car for a year. All those "different" things are now second nature and, in most respects, I prefer them over the older way. My point was that I see many people complain early on about something but usually later on they adjust to things and realize the benefits of the new design (see also: SMG ).

Again, I'm sorry if I offended you...

CoolTones

Huh? What did the wiper stalk do? I'm not sure I understand what you're saying.

Also, you do get used to the turn signals. For me, it's like everything else in the car (iDrive, SMG, Active Steering, etc.) -- it's different -- if you're resitant to change, then you'll have a hard time with the car. If you accept change and allow yourself to adjust, you'll find that these "new" designs end up being better than the old way of doing things. As far as the wheel blocking the green lights, yeah, they could have been placed better.

I will say that if they'd have made the audible clicking louder or through the speakers, there would be people complaining that it's too loud and they'd be calling that a design flaw...
[/quote]

When the turn indicators are activated, the *green* directional light flashes but you can't see it. Turn the windshield wipers on and you *see* the wipers going back and forth on the windshield -- That's what I meant about *seeing* the wipers...

Making comments about change does not make one *resistant* to change, but merely one who *notices* change I very much like the design changes that BMW has done to the 5-series. The fact that I will now be able to haul 4 golf bags at once is a good change!

As you pointed out, you can't please everyone.
[/quote]
I understand the difference in what you can *see* between the turn signal indicators and the wipers. I don't understand what you mean when you say "the E60 wiper stalk also does the same thing." What does it do that's the same as the turn signal stalk?

Also, I didn't mean to offend you in any way with my comment about people who are resistant to change. It wasn't aimed at you specifically and it wasn't meant to be a negative. I think we all are resistant to change to some degree. The E60 is advanced in many ways -- at the beginning of ownership, things that are different on the car are quite noticeable and evident and often times people complain about them. (I may have misunderstood your comment as being critical.) Next week I'll have had my car for a year. All those "different" things are now second nature and, in most respects, I prefer them over the older way. My point was that I see many people complain early on about something but usually later on they adjust to things and realize the benefits of the new design (see also: SMG ).

Again, I'm sorry if I offended you...
[/quote]

Hi Rudy,
Thanks for the reply. What I meant about the *same* was that both the turn indicator stalk and wiper stalk both snap/return back to center position once you let them go. Unlike my '98 BMW the stalks when moved in either the up/down direction stays there until you manualy flip them back to center. So no it's been a couple of days since my original post -- I've since driven a 545i a couple of more times (Well, I *have* to drive it a few more times to see if this is really what I want, right? ) and now as I drive my current BMW I'm wishing controls operated like the E60!

I'm looking forward to day I can place my order.
Cheers,
Tony

Rudy

Tony, I think you might be confused as to how the wiper stalk operates.

If you push it down, it will wipe once and snap back to center but if you push it up one click, it will stay there and the wipers will be on slow speed. You can push it up a second click and they'll be on fast speed. From the center (off) position, you can press the button on the end of the stalk to activate the rain sensor. In that case, the stalk stays in the center but a green LED illuminates on the stalk. The sensor sensitivity can be adjusted with the thumb dial on the stalk as well.

You're right that after a while, other cars start to feel strange...

edit: Just today I realized that I was wrong about the way the wiper stalk works. Tony is right, it does return to center. In the E39, it operated the way I described above but I never use anything except the rain sensor so I didn't realize they changed it. Oh well, now I know...